Automatic distributor of electric current



June 8, 1954 F. CHATELAIN 2,680,791

AUTOMATIC DISTRIBUTOR OF ELECTRIC CURRENT Filed April 24. 1953 2 Sheets-Sheet l 7 FIG. 4

ZNVENTOR.

Frederick Chal'elaim.

ATTORNEY June 8, 1954 F. CHATELAIN AUTOMATIC DISTRIBUTOR OF ELECTRIC CURRENT 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed April 24. 1955 I NVE N TOR Frederick C'haielaiw.

ATTORN Patented June 8, 1954 AUTOMATIC DISTRIBUTOR F ELECTRIC CURRENT Frederic Chatelain, Geneva, Switzerland Application April 24, 1953, Serial N 0. 350,829

Claims priority, application Switzerland May 8, 1952 Claims. 1

There are on the market many automatic electric current distributors of different constructions. These distributors comprise generally a distributing member constituted by a drum driven by means of a motor and provided with control means for the opening and closing of different electric circuits.

Now, in certain cases, especially when the cycle of the operations to be performed extends over a long period, the speed of rotation of the drum is so little that the control of the electric circuits may not be performed in a correct manner. To obviate said drawback, several manufacturers have foreseen a driving of the drum by means of an impulsion motor. The drum is then driven at regular intervals of time in an angular displacement of constant amplitude. Notwithstanding all these improvements, it happens frequently that this kind of distributor is not able to perform complete control of the closingand the openin of the electric circuits without the use of drums of considerable diameters, so that the distributor presents an unsatisfactorily great overall size when mounted in the casing of the machine to be controlled.

An object of the present invention is to provide an automatic electric current distributor for controlling electric circuits controlling the different operations of a cycle of operations, whereby each of said circuits comprises at least a pair of contacts the closing and the opening of which are caused by means of a distributin member in accordance with the cycle of operations which is to be performed.

Said distributor distinguishes from known distributors by a set of interchangeable distributing members, each of Which is constituted by a removable carrier carrying control means of the closin and opening of said electric circuits, said control means being disposed along parallel tracks, a driving motor causing a relative translation motion parallel to said tracks between said carrier and said contacts inserted in each of said controlled circuits, the interchangeability of said carrier allowing the user to realize successively different cycles of operations.

The attached drawing illustrates by way of not restrictive samples two forms of an automatic electric current distributor according to the invention.

Fig. 1 is a view in elevation of a first form of the device, with a cross section of the shaft of the driving motor.

Fig. 2 is a plan view.

Fig. 3 is an end view.

Fig. 4 illustrates partially a conducting bar at a greater scale.

Fig. 5 is a cross section of a variation of the carrier.

Fig. 6 is a partial end view of a variation.

Fig. 7 is a partial cross section along line VII-VII of Fig. 6.

The Figs. 8 to 11 illustrate a second form of the distributor of electric current for operating an automatic electric washing machine.

Fig. 8 is a simplified diagram of the electrical connections of the washing machine.

Fig. 9 is a side view of the distributor with a partial cross section along line IIII of Fig. 10.

Fig. 10 is a plan view of the distributor in which the pairs of contacts are eliminated for more clearness.

Fig. 11 is an end view from the right hand extremity of Figures 9 and 10.

The automatic current distributor represented in Figures 1 to 3 is mounted on a base piece I carrying a driving motor 2. Two horizontal parallel guides 3 are fastened to said base I by means of stands 4. A carrier constituted by a plate 5 of plastic insulating material slides along said guides 3 and its stroke is limited by removable stops 6 and I. The plate 5 is provided with conducting bars a, b, c, d, e, f, of double T-shaped cross section, moulded in the mass. The upper face of each bar presents alternately parts in (Fig. 4) flushing the surface of the plate 5 and countersunk parts on. Insulating elements 8 are placed in the grooves thus formed. The under face 9 of each bar a, b, c, d, c, is flush over its whole length on the surface of the plate 5. The insulating plate 5, is provided with the conducting bars constitutes a current distributing member which is movable and inter-changeable.

The base I supports a yoke I0 carrying a cross piece 13 provided with six contacts I2 resiliently engaging with the under face of the conducting bars. On the upper cross piece I 4 of the yoke ID are fastened six contacts I5 resiliently engaging the upper surface of the distributing member and sliding successively over the upper portions of the conducting bars and over the insulating elements 8. Each pair of contacts I2 and I5 located in a same vertical plan, is inserted in an electric circuit which should be closed and opened according to the cycle of operations which are to be performed. Supple leads G and H end at each pair of contacts I2 and I5, see Figure 1.

The insulating plate 5 is provided with a I toothed rack I6 moulded in one piece with said plate and located in its longitudinal middle plane. Said toothed rack meshes with a pinion H which may slide along a shaft :8, connected by means of a speed reduction transmission (not illustrated), to a driving motor 2. The driving of the movable plate 5 may be accomplished at a constant speed or by impulses of the same duration and the same amplitude following one another at regular intervals.

A slide 29 carrying a lateral control rod 2! terminated by a handle 22 is driven in the axial displacements of the pinion III mounted on the shaft 18 by means of a pin engaged in a slot made in its boss. The slide 20 is maintained in a given angular position by the rod 21 sliding in two guides 23. A return spring 24. engaged over the shaft l8, between a bearin 25 and the slide 29, tends to maintain the pinion H, in a position de fined by an axial bearing 26 and for which said pinion is in mesh with the toothed rack Hi.

The under face of the insulating plate 5 is provided with two transversely spaced hooks 28. Two return springs 29. and are each connected to a respective hool; located on opposite sides of said toothed rack US. These springs fastened at their ends opposite to said hooks to transversely spaced points on an auxiliary cross piece 3| fastened to the stands 4.

Figures 1 and 2 represent the distributor with the current distributing member in the start position.

When the motor 2' is running, the speedv reduction transmission drives the pinion IT in the direction of the arrow F1. The plate 5 is thus driven in the direction of the arrow F2. When the upper contacts l5 lie on conductive parts 01 of one of the tracks constituted by the upper faces ai-b1c1d1-eif1 of the bars a, b, c, d, e, f, the corresponding electric circuits are closed.

The stroke of the distributing member is limited by stops 1 which cause the automatic opening of the feeding circuit of the motor 2.

The operator exerts then a pull on the handle 22 in the direction of the arrow, F3 in order to disengage the pinion l 'l from the toothed rack 16. Under the action of the return springs 29 and 30;, the plate 5 is brought in the start posi-v tion back again for the control of a new cycle of operations. Indeed, when the operator releases the handle 22, the pinion l1, pushed by the spring 24, meshes anew with the toothed rack Hi.

In order to accomplish the control of another cycle of operations, it is sufficient, after having removed the removable stops 6, to pull the dis tributing member out of the guides 3 and to place another distributing member therein, the alternating conductive and insulated parts of which are distributed in another manner.

The cross section of the movable and interchangeable distributing member may have whatever shape desired for a cycle of operations.

The distributing member illustrated in Fig. 5 is constituted by continuous conducting ribbons stretched along three faces of the insulating plate. 5. An interchangeable rigid sheet Q5 of insulating material, is removably fastened onto the upper portions of said ribbons 35. Said sheet is provided with ranges; of perforations 3,1 dis-v posed in face of said ribbons in such a way thatsaid ribbons show alternately covered anduncovered parts. During thedisplacement of the dis:

tributing membenfthei contacts l3 slide alternately over said sheet 36 and over said uncovered parts. of said ribbons 35, meanwhile the lower contacts 12 are continually applied onto thelower po cn o a v bbp s. 5.

- changeable distributing members.

By substituting the insulating sheet 35 for a different insulating sheet having perforations distributed in a different manner, the user has the possibility to realize other cycles of opening and closing of the electric circuits which are to be controlled.

According to the diiierent form of invention illustrated in Figures 6 and '7', the distributing member slides in vertically disposed guides 3. Said guides 3 open free at both of their ends. The driving pinion IT has gullet teeth which teeth cooperate with a strip p of rubber. As illustrated on the drawing, the teeth of the pinion i? encrust in said rubber strip but without to injure said strip. Thus, the pinion ll drives the plate 5 along the guides 3. This form provides for a simple and useful distributor. Indeed, the desired distributing member is engaged by the user in the upper ends of the guides 3 and said plate falls down under the action of its own weight, so that the strip 7) comes automatically in mesh with the pinion I1. When said strip 19 escapes from the pinion, the plate 5 falls under the action of its own weight and disengages auto-. matically from the guides 3.

The second form of the automatic distributor represented on the drawings (Figures 9 to 11) is more particularly developed for the control of the different successive operations of an automatic washing machine.

The diagram (Fig. 8) of the electrical connections of the washing machine comprises a principal motor M driving an agitator disposed in a vat (not illustrated), a switch clock motor 42, a solenoid 43 controlling a clutch connected to a speed multiplying gearing, a solenoid 44 controlling the feeding of lukewarm water, a sole? noid 45 for the feeding of hot water, a solenoid 4S controlling a suction pump for emptying of the vat and a circuit breaker controlled by a float following the water level in said vat. All the electric circuits are supplied by a connection D.

The energizing circuit of the principal motor M and of the switch clock motor 42 comprises a pair of contacts 48, 48'. The circuit of the solenoid 43 comprises a pair of contacts 49, 49 and the circuit of the solenoid 44 comprises a pair of contacts 50, 50. The circuit of the solenoid 45 for the feeding of hot water comprises a pair of contacts 5|, 5! and the circuit of the solenoid 48 comprises a, pair of contacts 52, 52'. An alarm device 53 is inserted in a circuit controlled by means of a pair of contacts 5 54. These six pairs of contacts, each comprising spring blades provided with a conducting inset, are fastened parallel one to the other onto an insulating plate 55 (Figs. 8 and 11).

The washing machine comprises a set of inter- Each of said members comprises a removable carrier 56 carrying; cams and constituted by a rectangular insulating plate provided with the following five parallel tracks of cams:

A track NOT for the control of the principal motor M and of the switch clock motor 42, by means of the contacts 48, 48',

A track VID-for the control of the contacts. 5|, 5i controlling the feeding of lukewarm water,

A track S for the control of the feeding circuit,

A track ES for the control by means of the contacts 49, 49' of the draining at high speed.

The distributing member slides along parallel guides 51 fastened on a base piece 58 and presents, fastened on its under face, a toothed rack 59 meshing with a pinion 60 carried by the end of the shaft of the switch clock motor 42. Said toothed rack and said pinion may evidently be replaced by a rubber strip cooperatingwith a pinion having gullet teeth, as described with reference to Figures 6 and 7.

The Figures 9 and 10 represent in full lines the cam carrier 56 in an intermediary position situated between the right hand start position 56a illustrated with dotted lines, and the left hand end position illustrated through a trace comprising a line and two points. Removable stops 6| at the right hand extremities of the guides 57 and at least one retractable spring stop 52 mounted in the middle part of said guides, determines the exact start position of the cam carrier 56. The end position of said carrier is defined by a stopping rod 63 sliding vertically in a stand 54 and maintained, by means of an internal spring, in the upper active position. When the user desires to substitute the interchangeable cam carrier 56 for another, he pushes downwards the rod 63 and takes said carrier out of the guides 57 by sliding said carrier in the direction of the arrow F5.

The setting in place of a new cam carrier in the guides 51 will be performed from the right side after having removed the stops 6|. The left hand extremity of the plate 56 abuts temporarily on the spring stop 52. The toothed rack 59 comes then in mesh with the pinion 60. The moment the user closes the main or master circuit breaker 65, the motor 42 set under voltage, drives the pinion :60 which is in mesh with the toothed rack 59. The plate 56 is then driven in the direction of the arrow F5, by means of equal impulses (same duration and same amplitude) succeeding at equal time intervals from i. e. seconds.

Also the end stroke stops may be withdrawn and the guides be vertically disposed as described with reference to Figures 6 and 7.

The realizable combination of operations by means of the described distributing member-56 comprises: a preliminary washing of the linen in lukewarm water during twelve impulses and controlled through the cam 70, then a first emptying during five impulses and controlled through the cam H, and during said emptying a partial draining caused by the cam l2. Shortly after, the alarm device 53 is set into action through the intermediary of the cam 13 in order to give the user notice that he should put in the vat the necessary cleaning products. The feeding of hot water, controlled through the cam 14 extends over eighteen impulses. Afterwards, three rinsing cycles will automatically be performed, which are controlled through the cams 15, 16, I1, 18 and then 19, 80. The last rinsing comprises a draining at high speed caused by the cam 8|.

The set of distributing members may comprise a distributing member having only five parallel tracks of cams. Such a distributing member would provide no control rack for the alarm device. This kind of distributing member is convenient i. e. for the washing of woolen articles and other light articles. The cycle of the operations controlled by a distributing member having only five tracks of cams may comprise a feeding with lukewarm water during five i111- pulses, a first rinsing through an emptying, the end of which is performed at high speed, then two short cycles of feeding with lukewarm water, emptying, rinsing, draining. The total duration of the washing operations will then not exceed a quarter of an hour.

The practice has proved that the described distributor provided with a distributing member driven in a translatory displacement in its own plane and parallel to tracks of control means of the electric circuits, permits control of cycles of operations of very long durations, without undesirable large overall sizes. This is due to the fact that, by the known distributors provided with a rotative distributing member, an increase of the length of the periphery of said members has for eflicient results an increase of its diameter and consequently the simultaneous increase of the width and of the height of the distributor. On the contrary, by the distributor according to the present invention, an increase of the length of the tracks, causes only an increase of the length of the distributor, and in the case of the embodiment described with reference to Figures 6 and 7, it is possible to modify greatly the length of the distributing member, in order to adjust said length to the duration ofthe cycle of operations to be controlled, without increasing the sizes of the distributor. Indeed, said embodiment permits use of the same standard frame comprising the motor, the different pairs of contacts and the guides, for the control of cycles of operations having greatly different durations, by means of distributing members having greatly variable length.

Another advantage of the described distributor consists in the fact that the dead times between two successive cycles of operations are reduced to a minimum, whatever the duration of the cycle of operations may be, meanwhile in the known cylinder distributors, the duration of a revolution of the cylinder being constant, the dead and unproductive times between two cycles of operations are as much greater as is shorter the cycle of operations.

I claim:

1. An automatic electric current distributor for electric circuits controlling the different functions of a cycle of operations, whereby each of said electric circuits comprises at least a pair are caused by a distributing member, in accordance with the cycle of operations to be performed, in which said distributor comprises a set of interchangeable distributing members, each of said members comprising a carrier carrying circuit control means for the closing and opening of said electric circuits, said circuit control means being disposed along rectilinear parallel guides, a carrier driving motor causing a relative translatory movement parallel to said guides between the distributing member and the contacts inserted in each of said circuits to be controlled, whereby the interchangeability of the distributing member permits successively different cycles of operations having different durations, a frame carrying the pairs of contacts, and said driving motor and guides being rigidly fastened to said frame on each side of said carrier, said carrier sliding along said. guides when said motor is energized, and drive means connecting said motor to said carrier.

2. An automatic electric current distributor for electric circuits controlling the different functions of a cyclev of operations, whereby each of said electric circuits comprises at least a pair of contacts the opening and the closing of which are caused by a distributing member, in accord ance. with the cycle of operations to be performed, in which said distributor comprises a set of interchangeable distributing members, each of said members comprising a carrier carrying circuit control means for the closing and opening of said electric circuits, said circuit control means being disposed along rectilinear parallel guides, a. carrier driving motor causing a relative translatory movement parallel to said guides between the distributing member and the contacts inserted in each of said circuits to be controlled, whereby the interchangeability of the distributing member permits successively different cycles of operations having different durations, a frame carrying the said pairs of contacts, and said driving motor, said guides being rigidly fastened to said frame on each side of said carrier, said carrier sliding along said guides, a rubber strip rigidly fastened to said carrier, and a pinion having gullet teeth driven by said motor, said pinion cooperating with said rubber strip, to thereby impart movement to said carrier along said guides.

3. An automatic electric current distributor for electric circuits controlling the different functions of a cycle of operations, whereby each of said electric circuits comprises at least a pair of contacts the opening and the closing of which are caused by a distributing member, in accordance with the cycle of operations to be performed, in which said distributor comprises a set of interchangeable distributing members, each of said members comprising a carrier carrying circuit control means for the closing and opening of said electric circuits, said circuit control means being disposed along rectilinear parallel guides, a carrier driving motor causing a relative translatory movement parallel to said guides between the distributing member and the contacts inserted in each of said circuits to be controlled, whereby the interchangeability of the distributing member permits successively different cycles of operations having different durations, a. frame carrying the pairs of contacts, and said driving motor, guides rigidly fastened to said frame on each side of the carrier, said carrier sliding along said guides, said carrier being removable from said guides and made of insulating material, rectilinear conducting and corresponding tracks. at the upper and under faces. of said carrier, one of two corresponding conducting tracks being continuous, grooves made in the other of said two conducting tracks, insulating material located in said grooves, and contacts resiliently in contact with each of said tracks on said sliding carrier.

4. An automaticelectric current distributor for electric circuits controlling the different functions of a cycle of operations, whereby each of said electric circuits comprises at least a pair of contacts the opening and the closing of which are caused by a distributing member, in acc.ordance with the cycle of operations to, be performed, in which said distributor comprises a. set of interchangeable distributing members, each of said members comprising a, carrier carrying circuit control means for the closing and opening of said electric circuits, said circuit control means being disposed along rectilinear parallel guides, a carrier driving motor causing a relative translatory movement parallel to said guides between the distributing member and the contacts inserted in each of said circuits to be controlled, whereby the interchangeability of the distributing member permits successively different cycles of operations having different durations, a frame carrying the pairs of contacts, and said driving motor, guides rigidly fastened; to said frame, said carrier sliding along said guides and in which said carrier is removable. from said guides and made of insulating material, rectilinear conducting and corresponding tracks at the upper and under faces of said carrier, one of two corresponding conducting tracks being continuous, grooves made in the other of said two conducting tracks, insulating material located in said grooves, sliding contacts elastically applied onto each of, said tracks whereby each said pairs of tracks comprises a conducting bar embedded in the mass of the carrier and flushing the upper and under faces of the said carrier, and one of the faces of the conducting bars presenting grooves filled up with insulating material.

5. An automatic electric current distributor for electric circuits controlling the different functions of a cycle of operations, whereby each of said electric circuits comprises. at least a pair of contacts the opening and the closing of which are caused by a distributing member, in accordance with the cycle of operationsto be performed, in which said distributor comprises a set of interchangeable distributing members, each of said. members comprising a carrier carrying circuit control means for the closing and opening of said electric circuits, said circuit control means being disposed along rectilinear parallel guides, a carrier driving motor causing a relative translatory movement parallel to said guides between the distributing member and the contacts inserted in each of said circuits to be controlled, whereby the interchangeability of the distributing member permits successively different cycles of opera tions having different durations, a frame carrying the pairs of contacts, and said driving motor, guides rigidly fastened to each side of said frame, said carrier sliding between and along said guides and in which said carrier is removable from. the guides and made of insulating material, IGGti-s linear conducting and corresponding tracks at the upper and under faces of said carrier, one of two corresponding conducting tracks. being continuous, grooves made in the other of said two conducting tracks, insulating material located in said grooves, sliding contacts resiliently applied onto each of said tracks whereby each of said pairs of tracks comprises a conducting strip stretched over the upper and lower faces of said carrier, a removable cover-sheet of insulating material fastened on one of the faces of said carrier, and openings made in said cover-sheet in such a manner as to let appear portions of the parts of said strips stretched over said face of said carrier.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,345,289 Reiber Mar. 28, 1944 2,624,511 Manning Jan. 6, 19.53 

